


Day 5 – Role Reversal

by moshimichi



Series: ZarcRay Week 2017 [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-11-21 21:43:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11366220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moshimichi/pseuds/moshimichi
Summary: The truth comes to light.





	Day 5 – Role Reversal

Yuya’s screams rang out as the very air exploded around him. The others shielded themselves with their arms from the sudden onslaught, crying out in concern for the boy. Why was this happening? Since Yuya won the duel, Zarc shouldn’t be able to revive!

The winds eventually died down, allowing them to be able to look at Yuya’s transformation. His now silver hair hung limply in front of his face and obscured his features. However, everything else could be clearly seen. While it wasn’t completely monstrous, the one who stood before them wasn’t outright human either.

Gray scales littered the skin of his arms, becoming more concentrated as they went down until his forearms and clawed hands were completely covered in them. Scythe-like blades extended from his wrists in deadly curves and sharp horns protruded from his messy hair. His ears were now elfin with wing-like appendages bordering along the ridges. While his size didn’t seem to have changed much, his clothes were still ruined by the dark wings that had emerged and punctured cloth. Lastly, a tail, easily four times as long as he was tall, curled around him on the ground with its barbs pierced through the ground as if it was butter.

“Yu…ya…?” Sora hesitantly took a step closer to the still form. That one motion was enough to rouse the other boy. Clawed fingers twitched and barbs sliced cleanly through concrete as scales slowly slithered against the floor. Silver strands shifted and the group found themselves pinned to the spot by burning, molten gold.

Zarc’s gaze wandered over each Lancer in a searching manner. Not finding what he was looking for, he tilted his head back in a manner almost like a beast sniffing out its prey. Lips parted and a rough voice broke the stifling silence.

“R…ay…”

Reiji tensed at the word. Why was he looking for Ray? Pushing Reira behind him, the teen stepped forward. Reira’s footsteps could be heard as the boy stepped away, but unwilling to call Zarc’s attention to the child, he refrained from commanding him to stay put. Voice firm, he called, “Ray isn’t here, Zarc.”

Upon hearing his name, the draconic being’s eyes snapped towards Reiji. There was a flash of recognition as gold met amethyst just seconds before wind whistled past him. Reiji stood frozen, not daring to move so the barbs of Zarc’s tail wouldn’t cut even more into his neck.

“…Oh. You’re not her…” The sharp objects moved away and suddenly Reiji wasn’t so numb. A small trail of blood slipped down his skin, bringing to attention just how close he had been to death.

“Your eyes… Reiji… Ray’s…” Judging by Zarc’s mumbling, it could be concluded that the demon wasn’t completely coherent. Perhaps Yuya’s resistance had some part in it. He shook his head fiercely as if to clear his mind.

“Where is she?” he demanded. “I have to— She needs to be stopped. Where is she?!”

“You plan to stop her before she can stop you again?” Reiji made sure to not look back in Reira’s direction. If he gave any hint that Reira had a connection to Ray, who knew what that demon would do to him? “Before you worry about her, perhaps you should focus on us.”

The bespectacled teen raised his arms, activating his duel disk. The others quickly followed his example. There was no guarantee that Ray would revive. Even if she did, Reiji did not want to place any bets on the chances that she could seal Zarc away once again.

Reiji, the Lancers, and their allies would make sure to defeat him and bring back Yuya and the others by their own efforts. Of that, he was determined.

Zarc stared at the opposing group ready to fight him for a moment. Then, a loud, rumbling growl, a sound of a far greater magnitude than someone of his size should be able to make, tore free from behind bared fangs.

“Are you fucking stupid?!” he snapped. Taken aback, his opponents—dear gods,  _children_ —looked on in confusion. “We have to stop  _her!_  If she revives, she’ll try to destroy the world again!”

Looks ranging from outrage to disbelief scattered amongst the children. Reiji—Ray’s brother with those same, near identical eyes as the girl Zarc even now still admired—frowned. “Don’t try to tell us such preposterous lies, Zarc. Akaba Leo told us everything about your past.”

Now that the spirits of his counterparts were somewhat settled, Zarc could see bits and pieces of their memories. And likewise, they could see parts of  _his_. He could just feel the whirling confusion and denial, but he ignored them for the more important situation at hand.

“You  _are_  stupid,” he growled. If it weren’t for the dire situation, he would have found the offended look on the younger—no, he would probably be considered older at this point—boy’s face rather funny. But now wasn’t the time. “Akaba Leo is her  _pawn_.”

He wouldn’t be able to get anywhere if he didn’t explain to these kids. He knew they were skilled. If they continued to operate based on Ray’s fabricated lies, they would likely wear him down enough that he wouldn’t be able to stand a chance against her once she returned.

So he told them everything. Yes, he had caused that first incident of violence, launching an era of gladiator-like dueling. Yes, the monsters had been pained because of it, screaming in anger for vengeance. But  _no_ , he had not gone insane from it all. With how long he had been able to hear duel monsters and due to his bonds with his own forged by years of companionship, Zarc had been able to at least calm his monsters enough that they wouldn’t drive him off the deep end.

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the Speeding Diva.

Akaba Ray’s ability to feel the spirits’ emotions had been to a far lesser degree than his. But when the monsters suddenly gained mass, their voices had become so loud that it was as if her ability had strengthened a hundredfold. Unable to deal with the burden of the monsters’ rage and fear, she was quickly overwhelmed and went insane.

Ray concocted a plan to destroy all of humanity, as per the monsters’ wishes, and fed Leo a tearful sob story about her ability. In the hopes of helping his daughter, the man created four cards from the power of nature so that she could perhaps suppress her ability.

However, Ray ended up using those cards to augment her power instead. She became able to summon monsters into physical form on her own much like the kings of old and, connected to them as she was, formed them into an army able to use formidable strategies even the best strategists couldn’t beat.

As a fellow person with the same ability to hear duel monsters, Zarc had taken it upon himself to put an end to Ray’s rampage. On his own, he wouldn’t have been able to match her strength. So he fused himself with his four most loyal monsters, his dragons, and threw away his humanity in order to stand on the same ground.

But he made a mistake. Zarc pitied Ray. He sympathized with her. If things had been different, it could have easily been him who would’ve gone insane and tried to destroy the world. Unwilling to actually hurt her, he had instead tried to suppress her long enough to take the nature cards and used them to seal her power away.

Seeing that she wouldn’t be able to defeat him, Ray had decided to regroup. She split them into four so that one day she could revive herself and return to destroying the world with him out of the way. She manipulated the memories of Leo, the one person with actual blood ties to her, so that he would try to single-mindedly revive his daughter without even a thought to the resulting death and destruction or even to his own family.

At those last words, Reiji grit his teeth. So this was the true reason why they had been abandoned? Why his mother had been made to suffer his father’s absence?

“I admired her,” Zarc admitted. Ray had even been a sort of celebrity crush for him. “So I allowed my counterparts to nurture feelings of affection towards those girls. That way, should the girls ever disappear from their respective dimensions, they would be sure to follow.”

Should Ray’s revival ever become imminent, so would his own.

“Then, why were they so scared of you?” Sora butted in. He remembered Yuya’s fear-filled eyes whenever he thought of going berserk. “If it was for a good cause, why were they so against becoming one?”

“Because becoming one meant the worst was about to happen!” Zarc yelled. “They might not have known, but Ray’s revival not only meant the destruction of humanity, but the disappearance of the one most important to them. And they didn’t want that!”

“It’s kind of flattering, though, that parts of you were so attached to parts of me.”

Zarc’s body froze. That voice… It couldn’t be! Everyone’s eyes turned towards the direction that voice came from. There, standing tall with an amused smile on her face was…

“Ray!” he growled. She looked very much like how he remembered, though years younger like he was. Such was the effect of having their counterparts fuse together when they were younger than their original ages.

“Zarc,” Ray greeted back. Cold, violet eyes roved over his body in amusement, sending chills down his spine. “You look so cute when you’re small like that.”

“Cut the crap,” he snarled. “How did you come back?”

The smile on her face became a rather cruel smirk.

“Children are so susceptible to control,” she mused. Reiji’s eyes widened and he jerked around to look for Reira. However, the boy wasn’t anywhere to be found. His gaze whipped back to Ray—his sister—and she giggled when their eyes met. “The machine just needed a bit more fuel for me to return, if not the original world. So I just suggested to Reira that he take Father on a…walk.”

Zarc heard more than saw the thud of knees against the floor. “No.” Reiji’s whispered words echoed with despair. “Reira…  _Dad…_ ”

“You bitch…” Yuya’s spirit cried and writhed within Zarc. He might not have known the child personally, but he knew just how much his counterpart had cared for the boy.

Tinkling laughter answered his angry words. Ray held out her hand and Zarc realized with a jerk that the four bracelets once again adorned her wrist. One of the gemstones glowed, causing a gust of wind to blow.

_Rin_.

Distracted by the turmoil in the back of his mind, Zarc jumped when Ray suddenly appeared before him with the aid of the wind. Gentle hands gripped his face and his eyes widened as he soon found her lips on his. Everything inside him stilled, a cold yet warm pit in his stomach. When a tongue trailed over his lower lip and teeth nibbled teasingly, however, he quickly pushed her away and jumped back. A good distance between them now, he wiped his mouth to hopefully rid himself of both the sensation and the burning blush across his cheeks.

“What are you playing at?” Zarc demanded. The girl smiled, a gesture that pulled his attention unwillingly to her lips.

“I just wanted to see if such a relationship could work between us.” He knew what she was alluding to. Between Yuya and Yuzu, Yuto and Ruri, and Yugo and Rin, thoughts of a relationship between Ray and himself were easy to come to. If it wasn’t for Leo’s interference, maybe even Yuri and Selena would have had at least some sort of friendship.

“Don’t toy with me, Ray,” he hissed. Zarc had learned from his mistake. There would be no pity from him this time, no holding back. This time, he would be sure to take her down, even if it meant killing her.

“Oh, but Zarc…” She gave him a toothy smile that was much more malicious than her looks would have people believe. “What is it you say again? The fun has just begun.”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my tumblr [here.](http://moshimichi.tumblr.com/post/158443954495/day-5-role-reversal)
> 
> The title of “Speeding Diva” for Ray belongs to [Rose_Bride.](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_Bride)


End file.
